Improvement in suctxon air-pumps for locomotives



f Patented Ju'neso, 1374.

INvENToRs- WITNESSES..

4471A@ J2 www, @uk

To all whom it may concern:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EUGENE E. LEWIS AND LUZERNE SPALDING, OF PRESTON, CONNECTllGUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN SUCTlON AIR-PUMPS FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 152,659, dated June 30, 1874; application led April 14, 1874.

Be it known that we, EUGENE F. LEwIs and LUZERNE SPALDING, both ofthe town of Preston, in New London county and State of Connecticut, have invented certain Improvements in Suction Air-Pumps for Locomotives, of which the following' is a specification:

Our improvement consists in combining, with the ordinary steam-cylinders and valves of locomotive steam-engines, a system of pipes furnished with suitable valves connecting with each end of the cylinders, and extending back so as to connect with the ordinary apparatus of a train of cars to operate vacuum-brakes. By this means, the instant the steam is cut oi' from the steam-cylinders of the locomotive they become large air-pumps, to exhaust the air and to apply the brakes.

The accompanying drawing is a sectional view through the center of the ordinary locomotive steam-cylinder and its valves, and also of our system of pipes and valves.

The small figure is a transverse section"l through the center ot' the stop-cock or valve, which is used to prevent action upon the brakes except when required.

A is one of the ordina-ry steam-cylinders of the locomotive, and B its slide-valve; a a being the inlet-ports, and b the exhaust.

Our improvement consists in connecting the pipes (l C at each end of one cylinder, which both unite, and, extending back to the main pipe D, there meet a like pipe, C', which has connections witlr each end of the other eylinder. c o are valves set in the connections G C, which maybe either puppetvalves, as shown in the drawing, ball-valves, or any other proper kind of valve, their purpose being to admit air from the system of pipes into the cylinders, but to prevent anything whatever entering into the pipes. E is a stop-cock or cut-off valve, placed in the main pipe D, which should be operated by a lever readily accessible to the engineer. This cock or valve may be made similar to the ordinary waste-cock, having the passage d directly through it, and the transverse opening e, and also the outlet s, through the shell ot' the cock, as shown in the sectional view, in

which position the valve is open, as required, to apply the brakes but one quarter-'turn of the cock to the right forms an inlet to the rear, to admit air to release the brakes, and one quarter-turn to the left forms a relief or inlet through the valves c c into the cylinders, thus supplying the place of the ordinary reliefvalves now used; or one half-turn either way from the position shown in the drawing forms a relief both ways at the saine time, as may be desirable when used.

The operation of our improvement is as fol lows: Assuming the locomotive to bein motion an d the piston just commencing its stroke, with the throttle-valve closed, cutting off the steam from the cylinder, when all the parts would be in the several positions shown in the drawing, it is evident that the piston, being drawn to the right by the motion of the locomotive, will raise the valve and exhaust the air from the left pipe C, while the steam rst, then afterward the air in front of the piston, will be driven 'out through the exhaust-port b, in the ordinary manner; and that the return stroke of the piston will exhaust the air from the right pipe C in precisely the same lnanner, so that, when the locomotive is running under steam at full speed, by simply shutting off the steam and turning the valve E, in a single instant the driving-cylinders are converted into large pumps, exhausting, the air through the pipe D with great rapidity to apply the brakes and, again, simply turning the cock E admits the air and releases them instantly.

XVe claim as our invention- The combination, with the ordinary steamcylinders and valves of a locomotive-engine, of the connecting-pipes C C, each provided with a valve, c, opening toward the cylinder, and all uniting into the main pipe D and the three-way cock E, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

` EUGENE E. LEWIS.

LUZEENE sPALnING.

Titnesses NKVEBsTER PARK, GEORGE C. SETcIIELL. 

